The Top Two Hosts for Us
Two of our favorite web hosting platforms are well-known and trusted by many folks in the web development world. They’re pretty similar and offer helpful, responsive customer support, but there are some differences. Heads up: if you work with us, we highly recommend you wait to purchase hosting until we’ve discussed what you may need. Every client’s needs are different and we can help walk you through it all. Also, we can and have worked with other hosting providers. The following are simply our personal favorites.
Bluehost
Founded in 2003, Bluehost offers domain registration and hosting (including shared hosting, dedicated hosting, WordPress hosting, and WooCommerce hosting).
Pros
User-Friendliness
A significant positive point about Bluehost is how user-friendly it is. It’s fairly easy, even for folks who have never purchased hosting, to navigate the site and learn what they need. They even have step-by-step instructions that help walk you through purchases.
Customer Service Response Time
The number of times I’ve reached out to Bluehost’s customer support and gotten help within 15 minutes is kind of astounding. In the web development world, if you get an answer from a large company within the day, you might feel surprised, so getting answers that quickly is always nice.
Maestro Site Manager Dashboard
Bluehost Maestro is a site manager that’s nifty for those of us managing multiple sites. The backend of this manager might take some getting used to, but once you do, it’s really nifty. For example, we use it to help us keep track of core updates.
Affordable Hosting
While both Bluehost and DreamHost offer affordable pricing, Bluehost offers a more affordable lower-level option. Plus, it offers more storage space (as of the time this was written) and free plugins.
Cons
Potential Extra Costs
If you’re not careful, you may purchase features you don’t necessarily need for your site. Another reason so let us handle this for you or walk you through exactly what’s needed.
Domain Privacy
You might want to keep your information private, meaning if someone searches for who owns your domain online, they won’t see your info. Bluehost offers domain privacy masking for a fee. DreamHost offers this protection at no cost.
Hard to Cancel
This is one problem I haven’t encountered because I haven’t had to cancel with Bluehost, but they make you call to do it. That’s annoying but I’ve heard from others that it’s not as difficult as you may think. Kind of like moving to a new bank. It’s a chore, but it’s doable.
DreamHost
Founded in 1996, DreamHost is a domain name registrar and web hosting provider offering shared and dedicated hosting, plus a public cloud computing service.
Pros
Short-Term Pricing
You may not want a long-term domain contract. Maybe you’re shopping around and aren’t sure where you want to land yet. DreamHost offers low-cost short-term plans, both limited (one website) and unlimited (however many websites you want).
Free Domain Privacy
Keeping your information private is free with DreamHost. Well, not so much free, probably, as worked into the cost, but we appreciate that. When we’re looking at the domain name cost, it’s a little easier to swallow when you remember this feature is included.
Beefed Up Security
All of the plans from DreamHost come with security updates for WordPress, multi-factor authentication, daily backups, an SSL certificate, and more. They offer affordable custom malware remover, as well.
Guaranteed Money-Back
In a move that’s totally unheard of anywhere else, DreamHost offers a full refund on paid shared hosting plans for up to 97 days. Oh, and you can cancel with them from within the control panel/dashboard. No need to call. And that’s lovely!
Cons
Slower Customer Support
The response time is slower (usually about an hour, in my experience) but the answers are usually more detailed and helpful than Bluehost’s. Although, Bluehost’s customer service folks ask more questions, so it all depends on what you prefer and honestly, it depends on the situation.
Pricey Dedicated Servers
Having a dedicated server is great, but theirs run on the pricier side. Like, about three times more than that of Bluehost. It’s also important to remember that while DreamHost offers that money-back guarantee for up to 97 days, it’s only on their shared plans.
Lack of cPanel
Okay, so this is something the average user won’t have to worry about because they have pros like us to do it for them, but the lack of cPanel can be annoying. By the way, cPanel, in the simplest terms, is a hosting control panel software that’s used to customize your hosting account. Anyway, DreamHost offers a custom control panel with similar functionalities. Still, it should be noted that it could be a bummer if you’re used to cPanel.
The Final Word on Hosting Plans
Like anything in life and web development, everything depends on your goals, needs, and budget. You may want to go with another hosting plan and that’s cool, too! As I said before, there are tons out there to choose from and these two just happen to be our favorites. We also have a couple we’ll tell you to avoid if you’d like to chat about it more.